Edeltine (Lorica)
Edeltine A settlement with a population of 1,300, Edeltine is predominantly a university town, involving over a third of the town's population. The primary attraction of this place is Edeltine University, one of the most prestigious in the world, which generally enrolls three hundred students on a year-to-year basis. Students come from all over the world to attend this highly reputable university, where nearly fifty teachers hold a variety of seminar classes with students for mid-day hours. Course material differs depending on what the professor wants to talk about, allowing for some particularly unusual lecture topics. Generally, however, math, physics, chemistry, biology, history, visual art and performance art feature heavily in the university's offerings. Aside from teaching buildings and dorm rooms, the university also features a grand, immense library with multiple floors, holding information on just about everything imaginable - except magic, which is considered taboo. Matriculation generally means enrollment for two years, much longer than at most other institutions, and is highly selective, with only students with a solid background in the arts and sciences permitted to enroll. Upon graduation, students receive their diploma along with a robe meant to be worn only by those who have graduated from Edeltine University; both imply that the bearer has tremendous knowledge across a broad curriculum. Students have much of the day free and use this time to pursue studies on their own initiative and, of course, to interact with other people who don't attend the university, causing the entire town to have a scholarly aura. The University covers a huge area next to the town proper and is accessible to everyone, ie. there are no fences or border guards along its perimeter. Buildings are spacious and grandiose, often placed at a significant distance from each other, allowing for courtyards and even a large park, perpetually conveying the sense of springtime. What isn't well noticed is that Edeltine University also has a darker side. The Grand Library's riddle section holds the key to gaining access to an altogether different, underground floor, the Arcane Archives. The Archives is quite extensive as well, and although it still has plenty of bookshelves filled with books, these aren't part of the University's public collection at all. Instead, the Archives holds a copy of all the written texts currently present in Lorica, where-ever it might be, which is a serious magical affront to the privacy of the written text. This effectively allows anyone who has access to the Archives to read anything written on paper in the entire world, a significant advantage when it comes to learning about the esoteric nature of true magic. Nevertheless, it is still not easy to uncover all the knowledge about magic, since true magic's primary components - faera, moieta, and spells - don't have standardized names, aren't easily understood and in the case of spells, have an infinite diversity. Only the descendants of the rich Edeltine family - the same as the owner of the University's estate - have knowledge of the Arcane Archives' existence. They use this to garner knowledge of magic through the generations, each successive generation building off not of the previous ones' knowledge so much as everyone else's. Category:Settlements